Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
Biodegradation. 2010 Sep;21(5):793-800. doi: 10.1007/s10532-010-9344-1. Epub 2010 Mar 4.
The assessment of biodegradation activity in contaminated aquifers is critical to demonstrate the performance of bioremediation and natural attenuation and to parameterize models of contaminant plume dynamics. Real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to target the catabolic bssA gene (coding for benzylsuccinate synthase) and a 16S rDNA phylogenetic gene (for total Bacteria) as potential biomarkers to infer on anaerobic toluene degradation rates. A significant correlation (P = 0.0003) was found over a wide range of initial toluene concentrations (1-100 mg/l) between toluene degradation rates and bssA concentrations in anaerobic microcosms prepared with aquifer material from a hydrocarbon contaminated site. In contrast, the correlation between toluene degradation activity and total Bacteria concentrations was not significant (P = 0.1125). This suggests that qPCR targeting of functional genes might offer a simple approach to estimate in situ biodegradation activity, which would enhance site investigation and modeling of natural attenuation at hydrocarbon-contaminated sites.
评估受污染含水层中的生物降解活性对于证明生物修复和自然衰减的效果以及参数化污染物羽流动力学模型至关重要。实时定量 PCR（qPCR）被用于靶向代谢物 bssA 基因（编码苄基琥珀酸合酶）和 16S rDNA 系统发育基因（用于总细菌），作为推断厌氧甲苯降解速率的潜在生物标志物。在从烃污染场地采集的含水层物质制备的厌氧微宇宙中，发现甲苯降解速率与 bssA 浓度之间存在显著相关性（P = 0.0003），范围广泛，初始甲苯浓度为 1-100mg/l。相比之下，甲苯降解活性与总细菌浓度之间的相关性不显著（P = 0.1125）。这表明，针对功能基因的 qPCR 可能提供了一种简单的方法来估计原位生物降解活性，这将增强烃污染场地的现场调查和自然衰减模型化。
